Frank Roder Ticketed After Saving Son From Cliff, Jeep Plunges Into River

He may have been ticketed for not saving his Jeep from a cliff dive, but his other option was to let his 5-year-old son die and go to jail.

Frank Roder of New Jersey was ticketed on Thursday for failing to use his emergency brake, after which his Jeep flew into the Rahway River. Roder had leaped out of the vehicle because his son opened the door and was running straight toward a 35-foot embankment, according to Fox News.

"He hopped out, and I thought that was OK. I was just going to park," Roder, 38, told the station. "He just took off, made a beeline for the edge."

Roder said he narrowly saved his little boy Aidan, but his 2006 Jeep Commander wasn't so lucky. Roder knew something was wrong when the kid said, "Um, Daddy ..."

And then, the Jeep was gone. It slid down an embankment and into the muddy water below.

A cop on the scene reportedly handed him a pair of tickets -- one for the brake, and another for failure to produce his insurance card, which was in the water-bound Jeep -- and told Roder he should have just applied the brake.

"I say, 'Really? And if I did and my boy stepped over the edge and fell instead of the Jeep, then where would I be?' He says, 'Jail, for child endangerment'."